One day I'll figure the name out of that Brit scifi novel that left an image behind of the US extending its anti missile shield over us and in return we became a giant Disneyland like tourist location, with people going to their jobs in almost period dress to please the dollar waiving saviours!

No matter how pretty the building it seems that it's really hard to design something that doesn't encourage poor people to revert to gangs, so these pretty places are fine as long as they aren't for social housing*.

As for Dubia treating the workers like crap it is just the 21st century version of the slaves who built the pyramids.We like to think we are different but no one does any more than pay lip service. China has been using their money and army to commit genocide in Darfur so they can get their oil and we won't even pay a little more for our consumer goods to not support them. You might as well enjoy the architecture and cheap consumer goods and thank your lucky stars you were born in the west.

Only in the movies did slaves build the pyramids. Most anthropologists today agree that they were not slaves but hired workers. Of course, this may be getting technical with the word slave, but it is what it is.

I love that this conversation has sprung up here. I come from a family of engineers and architects, and have always been of the opinion that architecture is art and should subtly impact the surrounding areas. Example : in the town in which I attended college, the library and a restaurant had a set of windows that intentionally reflected the rays of the rising sun onto the West wall of another business. It was what caught my eye every morning, and reminded me that it's far better to be surrounded by art than advertising (yes, I know, that's a discussion all of its own).

However, it's important to remember that we have to be able to live in these spaces as well. The issue with the post-apocalyptic city image you posted is the same issue with Bauhaus architecture : while it's incredible to look it, it's miserable to live in. Even our modern white and cement cubes that DWELL drools over have to be balanced with nature, with sitting space, with something to ease the sharp edges and starkness.

And one more complete tangent:(he's not the best public speaker, but damn if his ideas aren't incredible)

"I come from a family of engineers and architects, and have always been of the opinion that architecture is art and should subtly impact the surrounding areas."

For me architecture is history made solid. I love nothing better than looking at a building and seeing how it's been changed and repurposed - looking at the different construction materials used for example.

"The first floor is older hand-made bricks but the second floor is machine-made bricks so it's newer. And on the second floor you can see where the bricked in the original windows because the newer bricks are a different color. That big area of different colored bricks that goes down to floor level was probably a door for freight and if you look up you can see where the hoist was originally located before they bricked it up."

I'm fascinated by what I think of as demotic architecture - not the big intellectual statements but the way people take those statements and rework them to suit their actual needs.